Follow Up: School offices for sale in Delmar — interested?

Updated 7:18 am, Sunday, November 18, 2012

Bethlehem School District administration offices at 90 Adams Place March 13, 2012 in Delmar, N.Y. The offices will move from 90 Adams Place to the Bethlehem High School soon. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Bethlehem School District administration offices at 90 Adams Place...

View of the steps leading to the New York State Museum on the Empire State Plaza on Tuesday Sept. 25, 2012 in Albany, NY. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)

Still for sale (or lease): 6,850-square-foot office space in the heart of old Delmar. Once a library, could be converted into a home, or ??? Central air, replacement roof and repainting of exterior approximately two years ago. Private parking for 24 cars. Zoning approval required for non-educational uses. Property is for sale or lease. PRICE REDUCED: $575,000. Contact: Bethlehem Central School District. ...

Real estate in old Delmar, the Bethlehem neighborhood off Delaware Avenue near the hamlet's Four Corners, tends to go fast. But the old school district administration building, on the market since the summer of 2011, is not just another Cape Cod.

"We've had several people looking at it," district Superintendent Thomas Douglas said Friday. "Business properties on the market tend to take longer, especially in a recession."

The building had been put up for sale at a price of $650,000 in an effort to cut costs and make some revenue; the price was reduced as months went by. The superintendent, the assistant superintendent, the registrar, the communications staff and two secretaries who worked out of the building in the residential neighborhood were relocated to the high school.

The building, once a library that has been expanded over the years, has been closed since July. Even if the administration building is not sold, officials had said the district saves $23,000 by mothballing the building, meaning turning off heat and electricity.

"I wish any (buyer) well," Douglas said, noting proceeds from a sale would go to paying off debt load. "We hope the historical significance of the building and the neighborhood that it sits in will always be taken care of."

ALBANY — In the years following the arrest of a veteran employee for stealing hundreds of artifacts, the State Education Department has beefed up security at the State Library and Archives.

The measures were set up after former archives historian Daniel Lorello confessed to police that he had stolen and sold many items from the state's collection, which includes rare documents from the Revolutionary War and Civil War.

In a confession in 2008, Lorello said the thefts were easy because "no one at work suspected anything or challenged me at any time."

Thomas Dunn, an Education Department spokesman, said the institution has enhanced security by adopting policies and procedures as well as day-to-day practice to safeguard collections, and adding a "sophisticated" surveillance system.

Since the changes were instituted, staff are never in a collections area alone; rigid procedures for granting access require multiple levels of approval; and there are new standards for removing items in the collection from storage — for example, a State Police escort is necessary for transfer of the most valuable holdings such as the original first draft of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which has toured the state in recent weeks and was recently on display at the State Museum.

The department also installed a security system, which has been in operation for about two years. "We cannot give any specifics because that would potentially compromise the system," Dunn said. "But it has very strong access control." The system has a network of closed-circuit cameras, door locks and a collections doors that can't be opened without a special card and PIN code.

The New York State Library and Archives, which are part of the Office of Cultural Education, contain more than 20 million books, documents, maps, newspapers and other resources explaining the history and culture of the state. Treasures include a complete set of autographs of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and manuscripts from the original draft of George Washington's farewell address.